Small living spaces have advantages. They’re adorable, cozy, easy to clean and you can quickly find things that get misplaced. Nevertheless, small spaces are not without demerits. Perhaps the most significant challenge is storage. It can feel like you have far more stuff than you have space to hold it. This real or perceived congestion creates an air of chaos and disorganization that will only lead to stress and frustration.
Fortunately, there are tons of creative ideas you can apply to make optimal use of your small living space. Whether you live in a tiny house, studio apartment or have a particular room that’s starved of storage, here’s a look at ways you can make the most of what you have.
Ottoman Storage
Revamping an old storage ottoman or investing in a new one is an effective way of storing the random items you often find floating in your living room but that you cannot find a specific place to keep. It provides a multi-faceted function by increasing your living room’s comfort, warming its aesthetic while keeping miscellaneous clutter away from view.
Art Storage Shadow Boxes
This is another nice blend of function and form. You can transform your wall prints into jewelry storage that’s hidden in plain sight. Keep your most precious gems safe, secure and organized without having to give up the precious real estate that’s so scarce in small spaces.
You can buy shadow boxes off-the-shelf. Alternatively, if you’ve been bitten by the DIY bug, you can create the boxes yourself with some creativity and a little elbow grease.
Under-the-Bed Storage
Below the bed is one of the more notorious, inadvertent storage spaces in the home. Unfortunately, there’s often no systematic process to it. It’s all about shoving things there until that time when you need them.
It’s a lost opportunity because you can actually store quite a lot down there if you adopt a more deliberate approach. You could for instance install pull-out drawers, dividers and customizable containers that help make the area below your bed a neat, clean storage space.
Kitchen Shelves
Of all tiny spaces in the home, it’s the kitchen that is hardest to tackle. That’s largely because it contains a diverse set of essential objects and substances. But with some time and ingenuity, it can work.
Before you do anything else, you’ll perhaps want to establish whether you’ve installed as much cabinetry as your kitchen can handle without losing its visual appeal. Check out the best online cabinets’ sale page. Once you have that covered but are still wanting storage space, you could explore the possibility of fitting shelves. Shelves are easy to install and, since they provide open display, the assortment of objects on the shelves can inject a richness of color and shapes that can only be a good thing.
Coffee Table
The living room is the space that will experience the most human traffic in your home comprising both residents and visitors. This traffic inevitably leads to an accumulation of clutter ranging from remotes and crafts to magazines and marketing brochures.
The top of your coffee table can be a nice place to keep interesting books, magazines and photo albums that your guests could peruse when they feel a little bored. The lower part of the coffee table can be fitted with pull-out drawers that would hold a much wider set of items.
When it comes to small spaces, it’s not about how much storage you lack but about how well you can make use of the available space.